ld--and determined not to be
outwitted by his mother, whose aim he saw, he continued, "I shan't
release you from your engagement to ride with me. We will start
early and get back before mother is up, so our excursion will in no
way interfere with my driving her to Woodlawn after breakfast."

Mrs. Graham was too polite to raise any further objection, but
resolving not to leave them to finish their _tete-a-tete_, she threw
herself upon one of the seats, and commenced talking to her son,
while Carrie, burning with jealousy and vexation, started for the
house, where she laid her grievances before her mother, who, equally
enraged, declared her intention of "hereafter watching the vixen
pretty closely."

"And she's going to ride with him to-morrow morning, you say. Well,
I fancy I can prevent that."

"How?" asked Carrie, eagerly, and her mother replied, "You know she
always rides Fleetfoot, which now, with the other horses, is in the
Grattan woods, two miles away. Of course she'll order Caesar to
bring him up to the stable, but I shall countermand that order,
bidding him say nothing to her about it. He dare not disobey me, and
when in the morning she asks for the pony, he can tell her just how
it is."

"Capital! capital!" exclaimed Carrie, never suspecting that there had
been a listener, even John Jr., who all the while was sitting in the
back parlor.

"Whew!" thought the young man. "Plotting, are they? Well, I'll see
how good I am at counterplotting."

So, slipping quietly out of the house, he went in quest of his
servant, Bill, telling him to go after Fleetfoot, whom he was to put
in the lower stable instead of the one where she was usually kept;
"and then in the morning, long before the sun is up," said he, "do
you have her at the door for one of the young ladies to ride."

"Yes, marster," answered Bill, looking around for his old straw hat.

"Now, see how quick you can go," John Jr. continued, adding as an
incentive to haste, that if Bill would get the pony stabled before
old Caesar, who had gone to Versailles, should return, he would give
him ten cents.

Bill needed no other inducement than the promise of money, and
without stopping to find his hat, he started off bare-headed, upon
the run, returning in the course of an hour and claiming his reward,
as Caesar had not yet got home.

"All right," said John Jr., tossing him the silver. "And now
remember to keep your tongue between your teeth."

Bill h